RSSGoogle Moves Vista Desktop Search Complaint to New Venue
By Scott M. Fulton, III | Published June 25, 2007, 4:47 PM
In what could be the company's only option for prolonging its complaint about Microsoft's deployment of its Windows Desktop Search component in Windows Vista, Google - which many believed had actually won a concession from Microsoft last week - has filed an amicus brief with the US district court overseeing Microsoft's compliance in its antitrust settlement with the US Justice Dept.
As first discovered by Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporter Todd Bishop, Google's brief asks the court to effectively compel the Justice Dept. -- which is charged with overseeing Microsoft's conduct with regard to compliance with court order -- to reveal more information about what Microsoft agreed to do.
Originally, Google was concerned that Microsoft was hogging the "Search" button in Vista - that when a user clicked on Search, it would bring up WDS as a default preference, precluding Google Desktop Search. As the DOJ reported last week, Microsoft agreed to modify its Search provision in Vista Service Pack 1, supposedly to give consumers a level playing field with regard to who handles that functionality.
But as the amicus brief indicates, Google is afraid that Microsoft chose to level the playing field by obstructing search functionality in Vista SP1 - by taking out the Search button altogether. We won't know for sure until the latter half of this year when SP1 will be released. Long-time Microsoft watchers know that "the latter half of this year" typically means late December.
And late December would fall after a critical deadline set by the Federal Circuit district court - specifically, that the DOJ would monitor Microsoft's conduct up until November 12, 2007, unless the court grants an extension. If SP1 is released after that deadline expires, Google implies, Microsoft could make an anti-competitive move like removing the Search button, without the court being able to put a stop to it.
"Google respectfully suggests that the Court extend the term of the Final Judgment so that it may supervise the steps that Microsoft is taking, ensure that they are implemented appropriately, and ensure that they in fact 'resolve any issues the complaint may raise under the Final Judgments,"' writes Google's attorneys, quoting in part Microsoft's consent decree with the DOJ. "Without an extension, the Court may not have effective means to oversee Microsoft's implementation of these changes and determine whether they are effective in meeting the requirements...of the Final Judgment."
That may sound agreeable to some, though Google may have forgotten that it hasn't been the district court that was overseeing Microsoft's conduct to begin with. Rather, the court famously assigned that job to the Justice Dept.
As the District Court explained in a memo accompanying its 2002 Final Judgment, "The remedy in this case will charge Plaintiffs [the DOJ] with the obligation of monitoring Microsoft's compliance. While Plaintiffs may rely upon the views of third parties to guide them in this task, the duty of enforcement belongs to Plaintiffs."
The court did reserve itself the right to extend the terms of its consent decree for an additional two years following the expiration of the original five-year term this November. However, that extension, as the court explained in its 2002 memo, can only come "upon a finding that Microsoft has engaged in a pattern of willful and systemic violation of the Court's decree."
An agreement on Microsoft's part to behave responsibly, along with plenty of concessions made to the original plaintiffs, including states' attorneys general, would bode against the likelihood of the DOJ compelling the court to extend that five-year term. The Court can't exactly grant a motion that no one makes. So Google is apparently trying to make that motion on the plaintiffs' behalf.
Neither company had an official comment on this topic this afternoon.
SCREW GOOGLE
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Until you've seen your own product destroyed by Microsoft you don't understand what it is like to be up against this insatiable bully. It's one thing to have an alternative product offering, but when you rig the platform so that the competition is disadvantaged that's wrong, illegal, and specifically prohibited under the terms of Microsoft's criminal conviction.
There isn't anything wrong with Microsoft's programs. If everyone got to choose what they wanted to use most would still pick Microsoft. So why do they feel they have to use dirty tricks to take it all? Do they lack confidence in their products? Do they think they are uncool and disliked to point where people would use other products just to avoid Microsoft? What is the root of this insecurity? Or is it just greed?
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Erm, you can use other services with Vista for search and it does not hinder performance.
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Grow up Google. I'm now uninstalling Google Desktop. That's pathetic.
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To hell with Google. Whiny crybabies. What happened to "don't be evil?" Well, as far as I'm concerned, and developer who cannot deal with competition and forces a competitor to write their software to accommodate them reeks of evil. I think Bren and Sergy, the biggest crybabies in the biz ought to stop wiping their asses with hundred dollar bills and remember that the people who made them can break them just as easily.
Google should focus on what it does best and stop trying to become something they are not. Does anybody really use their badly done versions of Word and Excel? Does anyone really give them the opportunity to index everything on their hard drives and store the information where beasts like the federal government could get their prying eyes on it? I think not.
Again, one big FU to Google. Unless they are willing to open up their precious source code and take orders from competitors, they should STFU and act like adults.
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One of the things on my list of things I like about Vista is the search feature. I really hope they do not remove it, they can alter it or move the feature, but to remove it would really suck.
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Yeah me too I love Windows Search...so much that I turned the bugger off.
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nice trolling there, only not really
/ps you are not funny, either
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What, they don't have enough of a market share already?
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Google has turned into a big baby.
Waaaaa - waaaaaaah.......waaaaaaaaaa
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OMG, Google has finally turned into Microsoft!!
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yes lets just extend the monitoring of microsoft indefinitely on the grounds that microsoft may, at some point, add a new product or service that may be anti-competitive.
piss off google.
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Couldn't MS just do the same thing they did with the media player incident? Just give the option to use a different search, isn't that good enough?
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They already agreed to do that, but Google is getting greedy.
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If they remove the search from the start-menu, I will not be upgrading to SP1. It has become a deal-breaker for me. It is so incredibly useful to me I could but do not desire to get along without it.
So some folks want to replace the WDS engine with the GDS engine. I cannot for the life of me understand why, but I also think that if it's a trivial change, MS should do it.
That said, I do *not* think they should be forced to do it. If for whatever reason it is more than trivial, MS should not be forced to rewrite massive sections of code, hack libraries, and "break" the OS to accommodate a company that has based it's product on a closed-source, 3rd party framework. Bad Google. You created a product because you thought some feature was missing in the previous version of Windows. It is no longer missing. Deal.
Sorry Google, but you fail this one.
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Personally, if SP1 removes the search, I'd be thrilled... It breaks it so I can't just use 'P' to enter into the All Programs list, and have to either wander in with the mouse or do the up, up, left, enter, THEN I can start working towards my programs.
Even with all of the search options turned off, it STILL auto-searches. At least making it so that the start menu can function like WinXP, without having to turn the start menu into 'Classic' mode, would be appreciated...
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and have to either wander in with the mouse or do the up, up, left, enter, THEN I can start working towards my programs.
Sounds like it would be easier to just type in the first three letter or so of the program name. :p
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